Stars Unbound
by Raine Moon
Summary: For a young pegasus, her whole life is devoted to celestial cartography. She adores making maps of the starry sky and she also loves astronomy. When she hears that a meteor storm is due for the end of the week, she gets overly excited and quickly proceeds to prepare her belongings to travel. However, life has other plans for her during her visit to Ponyville.


It was a normal day in Canterlot. The capital was bustling with activity. The merchants were trying to sell their wares to passersby and children were playing around the royal guards so they would make them lose their tempers. To some it might be overcrowded but for the residents of Canterlot, that was their usual day-to-day basis.

In one of the many streets of the town was a pegasus minding her own business. She held a small list in her mouth and she seemed to know where she was going. She stopped again to check on her list to verify she knew exactly what she needed so she wouldn't have to make several trips.

Once she made sure that she remembered what she needed, she grabbed the list with her teeth yet again and continued to walk through the busy streets of Canterlot. It wasn't long after that she found her destination: a shop that sold parchments and quills. Without any delay, she pushed the door open with her forehead and entered the shop, which was all but empty at the exception of the shop owner.

"Well, I didn't expect you to come back here so quickly," the shop owner said in surprise with a hoarse voice. "I thought you had made your supplies two days ago."

"It was supposed to be the case, Quill Pen, but certain circumstances have made it so I need to pack more than I had planned," the pegasus answered.

The Pegasus had a dark blue coat with a silvery mane and turquoise eyes. She was the normal size of a female Pegasus and her cutie mark was a full moon shrouded by the moon and surrounded by three stars.

"So, what will it be today for you?" the shop owner asked.

"I'll just take those, Quill Pen." The pegasus gave her list to unicorn in front of her and he looked at it for a few seconds. He nodded before leaving and heading into the warehouse.

While she patiently waited for the return of the shop owner, the Pegasus was already spacing out, lost in memories of the past day. She had received words that a meteor shower would happen soon and she had been told that it would probably be by the end of the week, which was in two days.

But it wasn't the meteor shower she was interested in; it was the fact that they had expected a clear night sky for that meteor shower so it would give her the opportunity to observe the stars and map them. She was no official astronomer but she did call herself a celestial cartographer because she did several maps and she had also submitted them to the government's astronomers in hope they would use her maps for moving and replacing the stars or to archive them.

~~oOo~~

_Here I was, minding my own business and going through the mess my room was. Well, it wasn't that much of a mess but my working desk was one heck of a mess. Most of my parchments were on there and most of them had already been used to map different stars and constellations. Anyway, I was minding my own business when I heard my mom's voice come from downstairs._

"_Coming, mom!" I replied with a tone of voice hinting hastiness._

_I was really curious about why she had called me, to be honest. My mother knew that I was busy sorting through my maps to find the most recent ones so I could go hand them over to the Academy. I never knew why they called it the Academy if nothing was taught there but all I knew was that most astronomers, especially famous ones, worked there and informed the Princess about the positions of the stars in the starry night sky._

_Oh dear, we're getting off the subject again, aren't we? Alright, well, when I got downstairs, I saw my mom standing right besides my father and they had faces that barely showed any emotions. I was a bit confused because when they did things like this was because they wanted to make an announcement._

_With close to no delays at all, my father grabbed a poster with his magic and gave it to me. I can see your question right about now: why are you a pegasus when both your parents are unicorns? Well, that's pretty simple. They aren't my biological parents. I was orphaned as a baby and they supposedly found me on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest when they were out observing the skies._

_Nevertheless, they were still my parents. They took me in despite the controversy that would await them and they gave me everything I needed. I had a very good education and I followed my parents in their line of work. I became an astronomer but while I was not exactly recognized yet by the government as a full-fledged astronomer so instead of using the title of astronomer, I referred to myself as a celestial cartographer since maps were the main things I did as an astronomer._

"_Raine, honey," my mother began. My full name was Raine Moon but my parents would most of the time call me either Raine or Rainie. "Did you hear about the coming meteor shower?"_

"_There's a new meteor shower coming along? Why didn't I hear about it earlier and why didn't I hear about it in the first place?" I asked my mother in a rush._

"_Calm down, honey. We heard about it today but apparently, it's been known since last weekend when you were gone to Vanhoover to record the Draco constellation and we've been so busy in the last few days."_

"_Any ideas where I could go and have a clear sky to map the stars there?" I asked my parents._

"_Well, from what we believe and from what we've heard, the best location for that would happen to be in a small town near Canterlot called Ponyville," my father answered simply._

"_Ponyville, Ponyville," I chanted as I sprinted to my room and got my map of Equestria along with my map of the old constellations and star clusters. "What is so special about you?"_

_I looked at my map and quickly located Ponyville standing nearly in the complete middle of the map and wrote down the coordinates on a separate note right next to the maps while also recording what quadrant the town was located in. I then took the star charts and place them on top of Equestria's map and began pinpointing the star clusters and constellations near Ponyville's quadrant._

"_Equuleus? Already mapped that one. Not Leo either, I've recorded that one as well. I've also recorded Sagitarius." I quickly went through most of the constellations that were in the same quadrant as Ponyville but I had already recorded most of them in the past. However, there was one cluster she didn't recognize._

"_Oh? What's that?" I narrowed my eyes and noticed the only star cluster I had not recorded so far. "The Moon's Embrace? Odd name for a cluster. And from the looks of it, it surrounds the moon so that must be why I haven't recorded it yet; the moonlight makes it harder to see and record them but let's see, the waxing crescent took place this week so I think that we're due for a full moon soon. I don't know when but I'm going to put my hope into the possibility it's going to take place during the night of the meteor shower."_

_My parents looked at me like I was somehow crazy since I was basically talking to myself but I dismissed their weird looks and just returned to the matter at hand, which happened to be making a list of what I would need since I would really need more parchments and inks, and possibly more quills for my expedition to Ponyville._

"_All right. Well, I'll have to run some errands tomorrow so I'm prepared for the end of the week," I said with a determined voice and a grin that made my parents look at me weird. I guess they never really saw me act like that all that often. Granted, I only did this when I was alone. Most of the time that is._

~~oOo~~

"And here are your items, miss," the shopkeeper said as he burst Raine Moon's bubble and brought her out of her mind.

"Ah, yes. Thank you very much, Quill Pen." As she said that, Raine Moon reached out for her saddlebags and pulled a pouch of bits out of them.

"And that'll make 32 bits, ma'am," Quill Pen told Raine Moon casually.

As Raine Moon emptied the content of her pouch, she quickly counted the bits she had with her and to her displeasure; she was missing two bits to pay her expenses. Over a single instant of inner rage, she let out in a slightly muffled voice, "Oh, horsefeathers!

"I'm sorry Quill Pen but I guess I won't be taking these for now. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow with the right amount of bits to actually pay for my material."

"Ah, don't worry, lassie. Here, let me tell you something"—Quill Pen gestured Raine Moon to get closer and when she did, he moved his head further ahead and started whispering something in the pegasus' ear—"I'll let you take them for 30 bits since you're practically my best customer. Just remember that next time you come buy something here, I'll be adding those 2 bits as extra on your payment."

Raine Moon's eyes went wide and her put on a large smile as she thanked the shopkeeper over and over again. He was acting humble the first few times but after twenty times of the Pegasus thanking him, she started to become a bit annoyed so he looked at her in the eyes and said, "Alright, alright. Now you're making me blush. Besides, you've got what you wanted for so scram, I'm sure you've got better things to do than hang around in a shop like mine."

The pegasus thanked him again and exited the shop. The shopkeeper let out a sigh and thought out loud that he was glad that was over with. Once she was outside, Raine Moon squealed in joy and then began to think about what she could do until she departed to Ponyville.

_Maybe I could go see how Violet Streak, Eagle Eye and Cloud Charger are doing as of late. It's been nearly a month since we've last seen each other_.

~~oOo~~

Two days later, Raine Moon was patiently waiting at the train station for the first train that would have Ponyville as its destination. She had already waited for a few hours and while she was somewhat patient at times, Raine Moon was getting a bit bored of waiting. She had decided to wait a bit more in hope the train would show up. After all, it would be infuriating if she left just when the train would arrive.

Patience rewarded her well, for the Ponyville train arrived at the train station a few minutes after the pegasus moved to the fifth dock. Raine Moon eagerly presented her ticket to the conductor and once she was onboard the train, she ventured into the train in search of a car that wouldn't be too crowded once the train would depart for Ponyville. It wasn't that she was an antisocial; it was just that she really enjoyed places that were calm and quiet.

She didn't know in which car she was but it seemed like a good place for somepony to be alone in. She took place in a seat right next to a window and once she was comfortable, Raine Moon looked outside, gazing and admiring Equestria's beauty. She had always loved looking at the scenery since she was a child. It first began when she was a child and her parents took her to one of the observation towers around the Royal Academy of Astronomy.

"Do you mind if I have a seat, dear?"

Raine was pulled out of her thoughts and she looked to her right to see a white unicorn mare with a purple mane looking at her. As much as she wanted to be alone, she had to admit that the mare standing in front of her didn't look too annoying or intrusive. Despite her earlier needs to be alone, she gave a nod with her head and the unicorn took a seat in front of Raine Moon.

"Are you from Ponyville?" the unicorn asked Raine Moon. "I don't think I've seen you in Ponyville before, though."

"No, I'm from Canterlot. I wasn't born in there but I lived my whole life in Canterlot. I take it you're from Ponyville then?"

"Of course I am but that's not important right now! I can't believe I'm talking to another mare from Canterlot. Granted, the last one ended living with us back in Ponyville but still, she still comes from a noble house of Canterlot," the unicorn said with a squeal as she brought her forehooves under her cheeks.

Raine Moon eyed the unicorn with a weird expression and even asked herself if she hadn't run into a pony with a few screws loose. She finally looked at the unicorn in the eyes and said, "Well, seeing as you came back from Canterlot, I can't be the only other mare from Canterlot you've spoken. We have a few celebrities in Canterlot such as Sapphire Shores and Hoity Toity. By the way, my name is Raine Moon and I'm a celestial cartographer."

"Oh, those two ponies are just fabulous. Hoity Toity's fashion lines are gorgeous; I only wish I could be that famous and successful as a fashionista myself," the mare exclaimed in delight. "My name is Rarity, perhaps you've heard of me?"

"Nope, can't say I have. I'm not exactly one for fashion," Raine Moon answered. "I'm interested in astronomy, though."

"Oh dear, maybe I should present you to Twilight, she'd be more interested in your domain that I am."

Raine Moon blinked for a moment. She didn't know a lot of Twilight but she did hear about one Twilight that was really well-known when she grew up. From what Raine could remember, her full name was Twilight Sparkle and she was Princess Celestia's private student. Of course, who hadn't heard of Twilight Sparkle in Canterlot. She was a prodigy amongst spell casters.

Nevertheless, she didn't continue the conversation about Twilight and continued to answer the unicorn's questions until Rarity asked Raine where she had learned about astronomy since it was widely known that astronomy was mostly practiced by unicorns.

"My parents taught me everything I know about astronomy," Raine Moon simply replied.

"Really? I was sure that pegasi were looked down upon in Canterlot by the unicorn nobles and the such."

"Oh, don't worry. That happens a lot but my parents are both unicorns." Upon seeing Rarity's puzzled expression, Raine Moon had the sudden urge to explain her situation to the unicorn. "My parents found me in the outskirts of the Everfree Forest twenty years ago when I was still a foal. They told me they weren't able to conceive by themselves and that because they couldn't just leave me to die out there, they brought me back to Canterlot and signed the papers to adopt me despite what others would think."

"Oh dear, that must have been hard for you to grow up in a town such as Canterlot, especially since you're a pegasus," Rarity stated.

"I suppose it was. Well, astronomy isn't a domain a lot of unicorns study in. I have to admit, my first few years in school were atrocious. Those pompous foals kept picking on me. At first, I didn't react a lot nor did I try to defend myself but when it had become known in the school that I had been adopted, one of those noble kids decided he wanted to pick on me by saying my biological parents left me because they didn't want me; that they didn't love me. I don't know what happened after that since I blacked out completely but when I came to my senses I was in the principal's office and my parents were there. After that time, school was easier," Raine Moon explained, her voice a bit more emotional than it was before; her expression nearly made her look as if she was furious.

"Oh my, that's just terrible. Bullies like those are simply horrible!" Rarity gasped in horror.

"At first, yes it was. As I grew up, though. I just realized that their words, while they did hurt me, wouldn't slow me down in what I wanted to become."

"Oh yes, I forgot to ask you but I wanted to know why is it that you're visiting Ponyville," Rarity said.

"Well, there's a meteor shower planned for tonight and apparently, the best clearing to observe stars happens to be right in Ponyville and since my parents are too busy as of late to go to Ponyville, I told them I'd go."

"Oh I see," Rarity replied in a somewhat flat voice.

As their conversation took a sudden ending, the train stopped in his tracked and the car conductor entered the car to announce that they had arrived to Ponyville. Raine Moon picked up her belongings and quickly made a beeline for the exit. Of course, she didn't push ponies out of her way like a savage; that would be disrespectful towards those ponies.

When Raine Moon got out of the train, she took a few minutes to look at Ponyville and quickly took noticed that the town was not as busy as Canterlot was. Granted, Canterlot serves as capital of Equestria so it was obvious that for it to be busier than Ponyville but the change in mood was quite nice for the pegasus.

She was about to depart from the train station when she heard Rarity behind her. "You know, if you ever need a place to stay at for the night, you can always try asking Twilight. She likes having guests and I'm pretty sure the both of you will get along just fine."

Raine Moon replied to that with a nod and proceeded to thank the unicorn before going on her way. She looked as every portion of Ponyville she could see as she walked through the town. It was bustling with energy and activity but compared to Canterlot, the town was quite peaceful.

The pegasus closed her eyes and took a long breath of air. She released a few seconds later but when she opened her eyes, a pink pony with a bouncy pink mane was standing right in front of her.

"Hi there, are you new to Ponyville. You seem new to me since I know everypony in Ponyville and I haven't seen you in town lately so when I saw you, I immediately thought you were new and I wanted to throw you a 'welcome to Ponyville' party but you were gone when I wanted to ask you if you were knew so here we are in this little alley. Oh, I'm so excited that I'm going to have a new friend to hang out with!" the pink pony said with close to no pause in an overexcited voice.

"Gah!" Raine Moon yelped in surprise and fear. "Who the hay are you?!"

"Silly you, I'm Pinkie Pie," the pink pony replied without a care in the world.

"Okay... well, I would love to talk to you a bit more but as things are right now, I really need to find a place that looks nice for tonight," Raine answered hesitantly while eyeing Pinkie Pie with a weird expression.

"What's the hurry and why is it so important to you to find a place like that when the whole of Ponyville is fine just as it is?"

"Because, buildings and houses standing in my way won't help me observe the stars and that's what I'll be doing tonight."

"What? But that seems so boring. I mean, I know I couldn't sit down and watch some stars glitter in the sky plus it really seems like something those unicorns in Canterlot would do with their fancy magic and all. You should totally let me organize you a party so I can introduce to all of my Ponyville friends. That way, you can be friends with all of them too!" Pinkie exclaimed with the biggest grin Raine had ever seen on a pony's face.

"We all have things we like over some others. I don't really like socializing when I'm working and right now, I'm on an unofficial assignment so I'm not really in the mood for socializing. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do." Raine Moon didn't even take second glances and just left the area with Pinkie Pie still being there, her happy expression had changed to a slightly sad one.

"Okay, but if you still want a party, you can always come see me and I organize it for you!"

"There you are, Pinkie Pie. I searched for you everywhere!" said a lavender unicorn through pants. "Why did you run off like that all of a sudden?"

"What do you mean, silly? I saw this pony I had never seen before so I followed her and managed to talk to her but she didn't want to be friends with me. She told me she didn't like to socialize when she was on the job and now she's gone. Hey, now that I think about it, I never asked for her name."

"Okay, slow down a bit, Pinkie. I know you told me that you met this new pony in town and you mentioned a job that she was doing, right?"

"Yeppers, she told me she needed to find a good spot so she could observe the stars tonight. I don't know what's happening tonight but it seemed pretty important. Is there something important happening tonight? Maybe something's gonna happen then where the plot will thicken and become more serious because that new pony will have made started a research on something. Or maybe the little voice in the background will tell us some valuable information about that new pony!"

"Pinkie Pie, you really are random."

"Of course I am!" Pinkie Pie replied in her cheery voice.

"Alright, come on now. I'm sure Rarity's wondering where we are now," Twilight said.

The two mares walked out of the alley and searched the streets for Rarity. Though they searched at the best of their abilities, they were unable to find the unicorn and it was instead Rarity that found them, to their Twilight and Pinkie Pie's surprise.

"There you are," Rarity said with a smile. "I just met this wonderful pegasus in the train on my way back. She doesn't really seem like one to socialize a lot but she's really a good pony to meet with."

"Wait a second, Rarity," Pinkie Pie said, nearly jumping at Rarity's face while still wearing an exaggerated smile. "Did she have dark blue fur with a silvery mane? And was she carrying saddlebags filled with parchments and quills?"

"Of course she was. After all, what kind of cartographer would she be if she didn't have her materials?"

"What kind of cartographer is she?" Twilight asked Rarity.

"She told me she was a celestial cartographer on the train."

"Oh, that's interesting!" Twilight exclaimed while clapping her hooves together. "They're not as common as they used to be and a pegasus no less. Most of those cartographers are unicorns in the first place and getting in the Royal Academy of Astronomy is hard to do. I wonder how she did it. Oh, just think about all the things we could talk about if I were to meet her."

"Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned her then," Rarity said through a fake smile. "I'm also pretty sure she mentioned something about a meteor shower tonight."

"Yes. Yes, of course. There is a meteor shower planned for tonight. Tonight's going to be so exciting!"

"Exciting? What's exciting about watching some meteors fly through the sky while we could be having a party for this new pony," Pinkie Pie told Twilight.

"In any case, "Rarity began, "I think it would be better if we let her alone for the moment.

"Agreed, you should do the same, Pinkie. We shouldn't give her a bad view of Ponyville."

~~oOo~~

Raine Moon was glad to finally be rid of that pink pony that called herself Pinkie Pie. It wasn't really that she didn't like her but her first impression of the party pony wasn't exactly the best impression she had gotten in her life. Granted, most ponies in Canterlot were reserved and well-spoken unlike Pinkie Pie, who was extremely outspoken.

She walked through the streets of Ponyville and looked at the different merchants selling their wares, the farmers selling their crops and she was even tempted to buy an apple but she opted not to in the end.

The next thing she did after checking the various wares from the merchants was to ask directions around the town. Since she didn't know the town at all, she deemed it right that she would need to ask around.

To her delight, she found one such pony. She was a filly with a yellow coat, a red mane and a pink ribbon on her mane. Raine Moon approached her and asked her if she knew of any high points near Ponyville.

"Well, Ah know ya can always head ta the hill near Sweet Apple Acre an' Ah guess that's the only high point Ah know in Ponyville," the filly said.

"Is it that high and where is it located?" Raine Moon inquired.

"If ya wanna go ta that hill, all ya have ta do is head southeast of here and ya'll see the hill."

"Thank you, uhm... I guess I never did ask for your name," Raine said with an embarrassed smirk.

"Mah name's Apple Bloom! What's yours, ma'am?"

"My name is Raine Moon. It was a pleasure meeting you, Apple Bloom. Well, I'm off so have a good day."

"Ya have a nice day as well, Miss Raine," Apple Bloom replied with a warm smile.

"Well, that was relatively easy to do," Raine Moon said when she was out of Apple Bloom's sight.

The pegasus walked in the direction Apple Bloom had given her with next to no problems but still admired the simple yet interesting architecture that the houses of Ponyville adorned. It wasn't anything like in Canterlot but it was still impressive to see it, especially since most of the inhabitants of Ponyville were earth ponies.

She found the hill quite easily and while she did bump into some ponies on her way out, she didn't really initiate any type of conversation besides apologizing to them for bumping into them.

She arrived atop the hill and looked around her and then looked up to the sky to see if the area was any good to stargaze and to her pleasure, it did seem like a good place. The only problem she did encounter with the spot was the presence of countless trees in from of her. Although the only drawback from that was that she wouldn't be able to admire the meteor shower if it was far away instead of being above her head.

"So, are you enjoying your stay in Ponyville?" asked a voice coming from behind Raine. It was unknown to the pegasus so it caught her by surprise.

"Oh dear sweet Celestia!" Raine exclaimed in a yelp. "You scared me."

"I'm sorry. Oh, books make it so easy to approach other ponies and initiate conversations but I don't know what went wrong, they never mentioned it would scare other ponies away," the unicorn said.

"Um, are you okay? You're talking a lot of gibberish about books and whatnot and I'm not quite sure I'm following you."

"Oh right... Sorry. Let me start over again," the unicorn said with a sheepish grin. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and the humble librarian of Ponyville. Nice to meet you, Raine Moon."

Wait, how do you know my name?" Raine asked Twilight Sparkle with a cautious look.

"Well, I'm friends with Pinkie Pie and Rarity so they told me about you and their encounters with you. The fact that you're a celestial cartographer really amazes, especially since you're a pegasus. They're not as usual as they used to be."

"That's not true. They are still a lot of them at the academy but most of them won't even bother to travel anymore so those you see are those bold enough to travel through Equestria," Raine Moon replied, correcting Twilight's statement.

"Right... but that brings me to my next question, and since I didn't ask Rarity for more details, I'd like to know how you, a pegasus, became an astronomer since celestial cartography is a branch of astronomy."

"Do I really need to tell that again? I already told it once today and I don't feel like telling it again," Raine said with a rather grouchy tone.

"Please, please, please, please, please!" pleaded Twilight Sparkle with puppy eyes.

"Oh alright, I'll tell you but no more pleading, it's embarrassing for both of us.

"Okay, so the thing you need to know is that my parents aren't pegasi; they're unicorns. Yes, before you do ask and I see the question forming on your lips, I am adopted. I never knew my biological parents and thus, my adoptive parents are the only parents I've known for all my life. They found me near the outskirts of the Everfree Forest and took me back with them. They were both astronomers in Canterlot at the time and as I grew up, I became more and more interested with astronomy and I ended up following in my parents' footsteps and became an astronomer myself," Raine Moon explained to the unicorn without any pauses. She took the next few seconds to catch her breath.

"Oh, I see. Well, I'm sure we'll have a lot of things to talk about if we were to sit down and talk freely."

"Actually, I don't really socialize on the—"

"—job, yes I know. Pinkie Pie told me about that. Truth be told, I used to be the same as you but my friends taught me how important it was to open up to other ponies," Twilight Sparkle told the pegasus standing in front of her, completely interrupting her all the while.

"Well, thank you for sharing that with me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to stretch my wings a bit, they've been itching for a while now," Raine Moon said, opening her wings and inspecting her feathers.

Once she was sure there wasn't anything wrong with her wings, she sprung off her hooves and with several flaps of her wings, she was in the air and heading away from the hill. _What's up with those ponies and why are they all trying to be friends with me?_ Raine Moon asked herself once she was out of sight. _No matter. Once I'm gone with this map, I can just go back home and return to my own life._

~~oOo~~

Night had fallen upon Equestria and sitting on a lonely cloud in the sky was Raine Moon. Her saddlebags had been enchanted by her parents so that they could rest on clouds just like a pegasus would and she had her parchments ready, her first bottle of ink had been opened and was ready for use. The only thing that she needed was for the meteor shower to begin. She didn't really know at which time it would be but for some odd reasons, the sky wasn't clear. Clouds were everywhere and they blocked her view.

Of course, there had been another reason for the pegasus to be on a cloud rather than being on the ground and that was mainly because of a certain group of ponies that was too nosy for her own tastes.

In any case, the clouds above her were making her a bit angry because those clouds weren't supposed to be there in the first place. Raine Moon had no idea where those clouds had come from but according to the weather forecast posted by the weather ponies in Canterlot concerning Ponyville, the sky was supposed to be clear of clouds.

While she contemplated the idea of leaving and just giving up on the idea of recording the Moon's Embrace star cluster, she looked up at the sky again and saw that the clouds were slowly disappearing bit by bit.

Puzzled by this, Raine tried to see what was happening but due to the vast amount of clouds there were she couldn't see it. Of course, once half the clouds were gone, she saw something that looked like a blue blur followed by some sort of rainbow-colored trail behind it. Squinting her eyes, she saw that it was a pegasus that was kicking clouds here and there in an unruly manner.

_Show off!_ Raine Moon scoffed mentally.

She waited for the other pegasus to stop popping those clouds out of the sky and took a more comfortable position on her lonely cloud until she felt an unusual disturbance in the air around her. She looked to her left and saw nothing so she asked herself if it hadn't just been her imagination but as she looked to her right, the signature smile that Pinkie Pie wore nearly all the time caught her by surprise and caused Raine Moon to jump in shock, unintentionally making her ink bottle spill its content on the pegasus' face while Pinkie Pie still kept that grin going.

"What do you want?!" Raine Moon asked bitterly while she tried to remove the ink that had splashed over her eyelids.

"What do you mean, silly? "Pinkie Pie asked back with the same smile. "I just wanted to say hi and ask if you still wanted to be my friend!"

"So... let me get this straight; you came up here on what seems to be a balloon just to see me and say hi and ask me to be your friend and yet you didn't realize that making me spill the content of my ink bottle on my face would make my answer into a big no?"

Pinkie Pie's ear flipped back a bit but she otherwise seemed rather unaffected by what Raine Moon had just asked her. "It was all in good fun though, right?"

"Look, I don't know why you're so bent on becoming my friend but I don't want to be your friend right now. I'm on a job and I need to take this seriously because this could get me a lot of recognition, especially since I've seldom seen any maps of that cluster in particular. Of course, it has been discovered but I don't think it has been recorded by a lot of astronomers. So... if you would be so kind as to leave me alone, I would be grateful."

With that, Raine Moon packed her belongings and quickly took off, leaving Pinkie Pie alone in her balloon. The pegasus flew around in search of a water surface so she could wash her face before the ink could dry and make it even harder for her to remove it.

She found a small pond near a little bridge in Ponyville and without any delay, she alighted and the first thing she did after putting her saddlebags to the ground was to drop her entire muzzle in the water, no matter how cold it was. The cold sensation the water had on her fur and skin sent shivers down her spine and her body started trembling a bit but it wasn't long for her body to adapt at the temporary change of temperature.

She pulled her head out of the water and took a quick glance at her reflection once the water had cleared. She was relatively pleased to see that most of the ink had faded away except at some spot where it had stayed, which dampened her mood. _Oh well, guess I'll need a good bath or shower when I get back home. I'm in dire need of one after that Pinkie Pie made me spill that ink bottle,_ Raine told herself.

She grabbed her saddlebags again and took flight again. This time, though, she opted to go somewhere that wasn't near the hill because she didn't want to be disturbed by Pinkie Pie again. She found such a spot with a good view of the sky on the horizon and brought a cloud with her. She sat in a comfortable manner and took all of her material out of her saddlebags again, including a new ink bottle

Once she was all set, she raised her head and looked at the horizon and quickly took notice that the meteor shower had begun. While it was a mesmerizing sight for the ponies below, it served as a light for Raine Moon to look at the stars above around the moon. She had brought her small telescope, small enough for travelling and good enough to see the stars decently, though it was not the best sight compared to the telescopes they had as the academy.

She tried to observe at the best of her abilities but the stars weren't exactly bright compared to the other stars that surrounded those stars in particular. Puzzled by that, she softly spoke, "Weird... According to the official star charts of Equestria, they are closer than the Equuleus constellation and it's the closest constellation to the planet known so far."

Determined to get a good view of those stars, Raine Moon put her things aside and climbed off of her cloud. She flew below the cloud and pushed it upwards a few dozens of meters. After a certain height, she stopped pushing the cloud and flew back up and softly alighted on her cloud as to not make her material all off.

The pegasus picked up her telescope and looked at the stars she tried to observe once more. This time, they were brighter but only by a bit. Still, it was enough for her to draw the form of the moon and then make small dots on her parchment scroll. Once she was done drawing the first few stars, she picked up her telescope again and looked at another quadrant of the moon and examined the stars' position thoroughly. After she had examined and remembered their locations, the put down her telescope and drew those stars on her map.

It wasn't long before Raine Moon had completed her map and as she looked at it, she couldn't help but notice it looked like some kind of barrier surrounding the moon, except for one star that wasn't in the same row the others were, just as if it had been forced out of the row. _Maybe this has something to do with Princess Luna's return some time ago but then again, what are the odds?_ Raine asked herself, a question to which she found no answer.

As she was done with her map, she began contemplating her behavior towards the ponies that had tried to be nice with her only to have her be rather nasty with them. Of course, she was just following her own code but she thought that maybe she overdid it a bit with Pinkie Pie simply because she was annoying her to no ends.

An idea flared in her mind and she took out another parchment in her saddlebags and dipped her quill in her ink bottle. She thought about the words she would use and they started flooding her mind as she wrote down what she wanted to say to the ponies that had been hospitable to her.

She finished her letter with a small smirk and folded it. Satisfied, she took her belongings and took off. The first thing she did was to fly above the hill in order to see if those ponies were still there and when she confirmed that they were, she let go of her letter and then hoped it wouldn't get swayed away by the wind too much. The last thing she wanted was for that letter to end up in the wrong pony's hooves. Then, she flew back to Ponyville.

Below, Twilight Sparkle thought she heard something in the air but when she looked up, she saw nothing, except for a piece of paper falling from the sky. Curiosity got the better of her and she used her magic to grab it when she saw that it was being tossed around by the wind.

She told her other friends about the piece of parchment and it was Pinkie Pie that asked her to read it to them once she had seen the name that had been written on it. Twilight Sparkle could only oblige to the earth pony's demands because she was actually curious about what the celestial cartographer had to say in her letter, or at least that's what Twilight deduced it was. Besides, most of her friends wanted to hear what the letter was saying.

Twilight Sparkle unfolded the letter and cleared her throat and began to read the first words of the letter.

~~oOo~~

At the train station, Raine Moon stood in front of the ticket booth and counted herself lucky that it was still open, and that there was a train ready to depart for Canterlot at the main dock of the station. She bought her ticket and climbed aboard with nothing more than a wry grin pursed on her lips while she whispered, "Well, I could consider this my good deed of the day."


End file.
